New developments in understanding and treating neuroinflammation.

We are currently witnesses to and authors of a paradigm shift in neuropathology. While classical acute and chronic neuroinflammatory diseases such as meningitis or multiple sclerosis (MS) present aspects of neurodegeneration, the disease course of progressive degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), or stroke-mediated neuronal deficit are demonstrably affected by inflammation. These insights have immediate consequences both for research methods and for the development of novel, more efficient therapies for these diseases. In this review, we analyze the inflammatory and degenerative pathological mechanisms in the brain with particular emphasis on the classical chronic inflammatory disease MS. We demonstrate that the latest pathological considerations not only require the application of advanced research technologies to investigate new pathomechanistic pathways, but also affect the investigation, development, and monitoring of novel potential therapeutic tools.